Feb 27: Independence Day

Perhaps one of the most frustrating parts of living here, exascerbated by our poor language skills, is getting access to accurate information. Without TV, radio, or newspapers we rely on a chain of human messengers to find out what activities are happening, when they start, where they are, when stores are open and closed, why the power is out for so long, and more.This particular day we had planned on attending the independance day parade in the city. The day was pretty fixed, but the time seemed a little questionable. Having asked four different people we had three different times. The afternoon time seemed to most likely and agreed with the little bit of online information I could gather. But you guessed it, as we were getting ready to go we heard the many families returning from the parade. In retrospect we should have figured out it was in the morning because there were no children knocking on the door at all. Nonetheless this was extremely frusturating because it was a rare opportunity, it was a new activity, and it would have been a lot of fun for the kids.